Maoists try to disrupt polls

Hazaribagh (Bihar)/Faizabad, Apr 23 (ANI): A large number of people from insurgency-hit states to Vizag in Andhra Pradesh began voting on Thursday in the second round of a month-long election.In Maoist infested Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand, gun toting paramilitary troops kept a watch while the voters cast their votes.

In the remote Naxal affected areas basic amenities like power, water, schools are lacking and the residents lament the lack of infrastructure and development in the region.

"People here keep yearning for water and power, we get neither," said Saraswati Devi, a voter.

They hope to elect a candidate who will work for their growth and progress.

A few hours before polling, Naxals struck a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp and blew up a railway station in Jharkhand.

According to police, the Naxals attacked the CRPF camp in West Singhbhum District.

The rebels also bombed the outer cabin of a railway station here. The police is unable to detect the whereabouts of the cabin man and porter since then.

The police further revealed that Naxal rebels have also blasted a road between Giridih and Dumri and cut trees to block it to prevent the people from voting.hile developmental issues concerned the voters in Hazaribagh, in Ayodhya, the birth place of Lord Ram, construction of a Ram Temple on the site of a 16th century mosque torn down by mobs in 1992, was a major poll issue.

The seers of the town said they wanted to bring in power a government that would build the Ram Temple.

"We will vote and support the candidate who builds Ram Temple and makes laws paving the way for the construction of the Ram Temple," said Mahant Gyan Das, head priest of the Hanuman Temple.

In Kathua region of Jammu and Kashmir, voters came out by dozens to cast their votes amid tight security.

In Vizag, old and young came alike to exercise their franchise at the polling booths. (ANI)